As most of you have heard by now, there is a new movie in theaters, “Julie and Julia”, based on the book written by Julie Powell. I had not heard of the book until seeing the movie preview, and immediately decided to read it. Being a food blogger myself (albeit a sporadic and quite inexperienced one), I had an inkling that a book like this would be right up my alley. So, after obtaining my large type copy from the library (the normal size type copies were all checked out. guess i wasn’t the only one intrigued by this story), I set out to read about Julie’s quest in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I was not all that impressed. It could have been Julie’s crassness and frequent vulgarity (ie: constant use of the F word, which may have been used to show her true personality, but was not really all that necessary, and will definitely not appear to the more reserved, conservative reader group), but the story itself was a bit hard to follow, since she often jumped back and forth between present and past events. In some ways, I could relate to her – a young woman looking for purpose in life. But mostly, I was not all that inspired by her story. There were a few gems of promise here and there, and while a quick read, it wasn’t necessarily a book I found myself looking forward to reading every evening. I do have quite a bit of admiration for her stamina, though, and her endurance. I once vowed to make every recipe in my cookie cookbook, The Cookie Bible (I have made several recipes, but am nowhere near done!) but let’s face it, cookies and French cooking are two very different animals. The fact that Julie stuck it out til the end AND blogged in detail about it is quite a feat in itself. Ok, so in truth, maybe it did inspire me a little bit. I know that it definitely made me want to bake and blog more. But it also made me want to see the movie. I’m pretty sure it will be better than the book, or at least more entertaining. I’m wondering whether readers will also find the movie better than the book. Has anyone else read the book first and is hoping the movie will be better?
